The families of three children who survived the Uvalde, Tx., mass school shooting are suing the school district, city, law enforcement and gun manufacturers in federal court, saying their alleged failures played a role in the attack that left 21 students and teachers dead. The lawsuit alleges the school district violated federal constitutional rights by failing to protect students and teachers. It said the district’s policies and practices left it unprepared for a mass shooting, reports the Wall Street Journal. The lawsuit asks for damages to be determined by a jury. The mass shooting at Robb Elementary School this spring was the deadliest at a U.S. school since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Ct., in 2012. The massacre—and the delayed response by law enforcement—left the Uvalde community reeling.
A review by Texas lawmakers found that systemic failures by hundreds of armed law-enforcement officers led to their delayed confrontation with the shooter, potentially costing lives. A team of Border Patrol agents confronted and killed the 18-year-old gunman more than an hour after police began to arrive. Surveillance video shows gunman Salvador Ramos entering a classroom in Robb Elementary School and police waiting in the hallway for over an hour. The lawsuit named 10 defendants, including former school district police chief Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, the city, the acting chief of the Uvalde Police Department at the time of the shooting, the elementary school’s former principal, as well as gun manufacturers and a gun dealer . It alleges that Daniel Defense LLC, identified as the manufacturer of the gun used in the shooting, uses deceptive and reckless marketing to attract young, untrained adults.